Seamus O’Brien joined GARDP as R&D Director in July 2018.
Prior to joining as GARDP’s R&D Director, Seamus O’Brien was most recently responsible for building and leading R&D collaborations, partnerships, and networks to address leading pharmaceutical companies’ (Pfizer and previously AstraZeneca) commitment to develop treatment options for antibiotic resistant infections. In particular he played a leading role in establishing novel partnerships with the US government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority as principal investigator for an antibiotic portfolio agreement and with the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) New Drugs 4 Bad Bugs programme within Europe as leader of the COMBACTE-CARE consortium addressing carbapenem resistance. He has also represented both AstraZeneca and Pfizer Essential Health on the Infection Control Strategic Governance Group for IMI.

Before joining Pfizer, Seamus worked for 10 years for AstraZeneca, initially leading physicians and scientists in the clinical development of oncology and infection products. He played a leading role in building a standalone infection unit to address AstraZeneca’s commitment to developing antibiotics for unmet medical need. He was responsible for bringing a novel antibiotic combination candidate through phase I to phase II and designing a streamlined clinical development programme aligned with emerging regulatory guidance.

Seamus brings with him a wealth of experience in pharmaceutical drug development from antibiotic to vaccine clinical development, across a range of sectors, to leading medical affairs support for a number of product launches. He has a PhD in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and host immunity from the Wellcome Trust/University of Leicester and first degree in Microbiology from Trinity College Dublin.